Road maintenance and motorcycle safety

Motorcycles are a legitimate and growing road user group on Victoria's roads. Relative to other vehicle types they provide benefits in affordability, mobility, accessibility, and environmental outcomes, but they have a poor safety record. Motorcycles comprise less than 3 per cent of registered vehicles in Victoria and less than 1 per cent of the traffic stream, however motorcyclists represent 14 per cent of road crash fatalities. The Victorian Motorcycle Road Safety Strategy 2002/07 identifies aspects of road design and maintenance that create special problems for riders. To address this issue, VicRoads is undertaking a 4-stage project, A Review of Engineering Maintenance Practice for Motorcycle Safety funded by the Motorcycle Safety levy and endorsed by VMAC to review documented road maintenance requirements and practices and make recommendations to deliver an improved road environment for riders. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E214930.